the owl and the olive tree

I love steampunk, but, contrary to a lot of common steampunk tropes, I'm a lot more fond of Edwardian and Roaring Twenties steampunk than Victorian steampunk. Well, and I think that medieval/renaissance clockpunk is pretty awesome, too.

It may just be that I look better in those clothes -- walking dresses, flapper attire, and cotehardies all suit me better than most Victorian fashion.

This may also play into my fondness for Fullmetal Alchemist.

(I also like anachrotech that isn't completely focused on America and Europe. I remember a fantastic Heian steampunk outfit. And wouldn't that be a great manga -- kids in clockwork giant robots?)

(This is on my mind because I'm attending "Steampunk University" this weekend. Geek geek geek.)

I covet this skirt like BURNING.

I can't afford it (right now, anyway), but it's perfect.

I need a new jacket, having lost (sob!) my Pava's black leather trench. Alas, poor coat.

I need a hat, because otherwise my nose will burn.

Would it be totally ridiculous and steamrat-ish to buy a brown linen duster (I want a new leather jacket, too, but it's not the season for a heavy coat yet) and a, um, a fedora? I kind of have a hankering for a Victorian lady adventuress persona, a la Amelia Peabody, or Indiana Jones-meets-Gwendolyn Fairfax-by-way-of-Cordelia Naismith. And a tan or brown linen jacket of a sufficiently unassuming cut would go okay either with a t-shirt and jeans or with a walking skirt and perhaps some sort of bodice. I realize that the fedora is a bit cliche, what with the new Indy movie, but... but. It's awfully tempting, and I'm excited to have a fashion paradigm that's so appealing.

(I am trying to convince jmpava that a tasteful steampunk decorating theme would be awesome for the new place. Emphasis on tasteful -- I don't want anything garish or cluttered-looking myself, and random gears stuck everywhere is passé -- but it seems to be a plausible way to bridge his desire for the simplicity of glass and black metal and my desire for something a bit more old-fashioned with wood and colors. He isn't biting yet, though. Of course, given how many things we saw at Uwajimaya and went 'omg, that's awesome!', we might go more that route, though I think I'd feel like a poseur going too heavy on the Japanese influences.)

I should also probably get more long hippy skirts, since I have exactly one and I wear it so often I'm going to wear it out, but I'm sure I'll have ample opportunity for that at the umpty-million street fairs in the summer. Or I could probably make one -- the pattern is fairly simple -- though I do not as currently have a sewing machine and there isn't really room in the budget to buy one until we've got necessary house-ish things out of the way first.

Fashion is a lot more fun when I'm worrying about what I want to look like and not at all about what's in style, though I still don't go for the extremes -- I'm too introverted a person to want to be stared at.

1300 words tonight on Feather in the Gears, despite stomach cramps and general work-tiredness. Lai has just agreed to repair Evije's broken thing at a lower-than-usual price, with repercussions that neither of them are going to see until it's too late. I think. I hope.

Time. For. Bed. But: hooray.

The boy and I should have been out the door and heading to his father's a while ago, but I can't really regret the delay for two reasons:

1) A few days ago, I bought a lot of watch parts on eBay, and they arrived. They're astonishingly beautiful -- tiny perfect brass and silver gears, frozen-in-time watchfaces, long coiling mainsprings, rounded glass watchfaces. I'll be able to make all kinds of interesting things for my steampunk costume, and probably for other art projects too.

2) I had a highly entertaining (and fairly plotty!) dream. It's beginning to fade, so I will ( preserve it for posterity )